


Joke's on You

by naturalhazard



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: But I May Be Wrong, Fluff (Or At Least What I Hope This Comes Across As), I Doubt Glitter Was A Thing Back In The '800s, M/M, Modern Setting, Petty Coworkers, Romance, Secret Relationship, What if?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 21:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13373808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naturalhazard/pseuds/naturalhazard
Summary: «Ronald Knox! Get in my office right now!». Ronald sighed in annoyance, that day, his senior seemed particularly stressed and out of it.He kept on frowning and sighing heavily, reprimanding multiple employees, filing different complaints, checking and rechecking the accounts of the souls collected that didn't balance and addressing warning letters towards those who didn't respect the deadlines, sorting receipts and picking on any one of those whom he deemed incompetents, good for nothing and lazy subordinates.Incompetent, good for nothing, lazy or not, he wasn't spared either.He didn’t know what did he possibly do wrong this time... but he was afraid of the worst, at this point.





	Joke's on You

«Ronald Knox! Get in my office right now!». Ronald sighed in annoyance, that day, his senior seemed particularly stressed and out of it. 

He kept on frowning and sighing heavily, reprimanding multiple employees, filing different complaints, checking and rechecking the accounts of the souls collected that didn't balance and addressing warning letters towards those who didn't respect the deadlines, sorting receipts and picking on any one of those whom he deemed incompetents, good for nothing and lazy subordinates.

Incompetent, good for nothing, lazy or not, he wasn't spared either.

He didn’t know what did he possibly do wrong this time... but he was afraid of the worst, at this point.

Actually, Ronald had to reap some souls that same day. Nothing more, nothing less. He made sure to have reaped the right souls as he had checked twice for the names of the dead in his list.

He was sure to have completed his duty as he was supposed to, so he had no idea of what his boss could complain about, this time.

It was late afternoon and most of the working people in the department were leaving the building in that moment. Ronald entered his senior’s office as he gave a glance at his face and... he looked... mad.

As soon as he gave a look to the room he understood what the “problem” was, and he had to keep himself from snickering.

Little red hearts made of paper were covering his entire office — that had been completely carpeted in red fabric, apparently — each of the hearts had a different picture of Grell making a kissy face and winking. In the walls, someone pasted glitter-colored giant letters that put together formed the sentence “I love Grell Sutcliff”.

Ronald bit his lip, trying to keep a poker face.

«Phew… and I thought you called me in here for serious reasons». He replied, trying not to chuckle.

«This is a serious matter, Ronald Knox. There’s nothing to laugh, honestly». William said, moving up the frames of his glasses nervously.

«It’s just a joke, boss. We’re close to April Fools and some people often like to play pranks in advance, at times. Besides, it was Mr. Othello's idea».

This was unexpected, William frowned for a moment.

«Othello?». He asked in confusion.

«Yup. He seems to hold a grudge against you, Willie~» Ronald answered, using Othello’s favorite nickname for William to tease him.

«…» the Supervisor didn’t know what to say. He knew that Othello had a penchant for passive-aggressive shenanigans, but he couldn’t imagine why, for the life of him, Othello would do something like this to him, of all people.

«…It’s for Senior Sutcliff...» Ronald said, interrupting his thoughts: «He says you don’t understand how lucky you are to be the one Sutcliff has feelings for and that if he was at your place, he’d treat Sutcliff as the "queen she truly is". He knew you’d be annoyed by this, and ya know I couldn’t stop 'im». He said as he shrugged.

«…» Yet again, William was speechless.

Grell just got another suspension a month prior and as result, his exams partner has been spending many weeks in punishment, apparently after having messed up once more.

For a moment none of them said anything, they just looked at each other in silence.

  
Ronald wasn’t looking only at his boss, but also at his _lover._  


Getting closer to him, he sat, and he rested his arms on the desk, reaching for William’s face with his fingers, caressing his jaw for a brief instant.

«Ah, if only he was aware of a certain fact~» the ginger said, smirking cheekily.

«…I suppose he still isn’t if my office ended up like this». William closed his eyes sighing.

«Of course not,» He laughed «or do you want me to tell him, hm?~».

William looked out the window to his left. It was all new for him, in a certain sense.

He never considered the possibility of having a relationship since he became a reaper.

It wasn’t something he considered worthy of his time and of his energies.

Perhaps it’s true when they say "you never know what awaits you" and certain things just can be neither predicted nor expected.

A chain of unforeseen events brought them together, as they started to genuinely appreciate each other’s presence, little by little.

Feelings William decided to forget once and for all risen up helplessly, impetuously, irredeemably, destroying the walls he built all around his own heart and soul to protect himself for decades, for almost a century.

It went against all of his principles, it went against all the rules, it went against all his very being.

 

«Everybody dies but not everybody lives,» he told him once, casually, chuckling «I wonder which is the category we fall in…».

William looked at the younger man, who seemed amused by the thought. He had a weird sense of humor.

He found it intriguing.

He felt there was something more about him.

 

“Except death- rules can be overturned.”

“Bringing your emotions into your job is a waste of time…”

And in the hard, tiring and stressing attempt to find an acceptable compromise between two completely opposite outlooks they decided to give this… _relationship_ a possibility.

A had-to-stay quite hidden possibility.

They weren’t dishonest people, nor liars.

A relationship between a senior and a subordinate wasn’t the norm.

William was always on his edge whenever he thought their behavior could catch the wrong attention.

Ronald had to keep on living up to his womanizer reputation as if nothing between them ever happened.

They were still struggling to get accustomed to this situation.

Their workplace was the reminder of their public lie.

Outside was difficult.  
Inside was easy.

Their private space was the reminder of their private truth.

The burden of a secret like of this kind was almost impossible to bear, but they bore it together.

Once by themselves they felt better.

They wanted to stay by each other’s side.

Finding solace, serenity, peace, reassurance, and love in each other made it all worth it.

 

«There’s no need to talk about this matter anymore». William decided, raising up.

«So what, now?» Ronald asked him, rolling on his chair.

William wore his jacket and invited Ronald to do the same.

«I shall have all this stuff removed from my office. By the culprit, of course». He decided, sternly.

«…Fair enough».

As the younger man finished buttoning his vest they left the building together.

«As for you — _Ronald_ — you basically admitted having taken part in it». William spoke, looking at him.

«Yup… I can’t deny it~» he chuckled, knowing William, he’d probably hold a little grudge against him for this, and he’d bring it out in their conversations pretty often, even from nothing as in «Do you remember when you and Othello…?».

William T. Spears was quite the touchy person after all, not to mention his grumpy attitude.

But he really valued his professional aesthetics.

What a dork.

His lips got closer to his ear as his boss whispered: «You’ll sleep on the couch tonight».

**Author's Note:**

> This was a little fic I wrote as the answer to an anonymous prompt on tumblr.
> 
> Truth be told, I'm new to writing so I know I have a lot to learn but I also want to experiment and to play with different ideas for my favorite characters and my otp, because my affection for both is hopeless and I really need to let it go x)
> 
> That being said, I hope you enjoyed this fic. Thanks for your time c:


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